


12 Hours

by doaflipspiderman



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Peter Parker Whump, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:48:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23435686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doaflipspiderman/pseuds/doaflipspiderman
Summary: How can Peter be a friendly neighborhood Spider-man when there's no neighborhood left to protect? How can the Avengers defend the world when there's no world left to defend? Everything has changed, everything except Peter Parker and Tony Stark. How long will they last in this new world trying to protect each other? Is the paternal bond they share strong enough to protect both of them, or will it be their downfall?
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers & Tony Stark
Comments: 3
Kudos: 38





	1. the beginning

It took 12 hours for the world to fall. 12 hours for the disease to seep out of the CDC and travel up the east coast and eventually out west. 12 hours for all communication to cease. Cell towers to stop working, power plants to stop producing electricity, satellites to stop receiving a signal. You’d think it’d take longer than 12hrs for all of humanity to fall, but with a brain-eating infectious disease, the manmade world never stood a chance. 

Peter was in school when it happened. Everyones cell phone went off at once, the emergency alert echoing through the halls. Something about seeking shelter, don’t go outside, infectious disease spreading quickly. A very vague message that was quickly followed by families calling family trying to get them all together. Students rushed out of the school to head home. People were glued to their phones trying to find more information. A couple of videos had already been uploaded of bizarre attacks that apparently were a result of the disease. The halls were full of whispers all about the same thing.

Zombies.

Peter called Aunt May who was working her shift at the hospital. “We don’t know what it is yet hunny, but we’re trying to keep the people who have been bit restrained and treat their symptoms before they wake back up.” 

“Bit? Wake back up?” Peter asks shakily as he makes his way through the crowded streets.

“People who are infected are biting the non-infected and that seems to be how the disease is spreading. They become very sick and then die, but...but they wake back up...or at least their brain does. The rest of their body seems to be dead.” May says shakily as if she’s still trying to wrap her mind around it.

Zombies.

That’s the only thing that comes to Peters’s mind as she describes that. Hours upon hours of him and Ned binge watching the walking dead and coming up with their own plans to survive a zombie apocalypse feels like an ironic joke to him now. 

“May, I really think you should get home,” Peter says as he climbs a building to slip his suit on. “I don’t think it’s safe for you to be at the hospital right now,” Peter says pulling on his suit. 

“They need me here Peter. People are coming in by the dozens. We’re taking all the necessary precautions don’t worry sweety.” There’s suddenly a lot of screaming and yelling in the background and May says worriedly, “I’ve got to go.” before hanging up abruptly. 

“May!” Peter says into his mask. “Oh man,” Peter mumbles as he scans the crowded streets. This is not good he thinks. He decided to make his way to the hospital. If May won’t come home then he’ll go to her. 

Along his way he sees groups of people running and screaming. He webbed up a few of the “infected” trying his best to keep them away from the normal folks. 

“Get off the streets!” he yells to them. “It’s not safe!” 

Every corner he turns just brings more “infected”. He can’t just leave them wandering the street to attack more people so he does what Spider-Man is supposed to do. He protects his city.

“Incoming call from Tony Stark” Karen’s calm voice says amidst all this chaos. 

It seems that Tony wasn’t even going to give the chance for Peter to pick up because before he could answer he hears Tony’s voice in his ears.

“Kid? Kid where are you? I’m gonna send a suit. You need to get to the compound right now.” Tony says sounding clearly shaken up. He sounds out of breath like he’s been running around and there’s a lot of other background noise of people talking rapidly. 

“I’m trying to keep them away.” Peter grunts shooting a web around a cluster of them. Apparently he didn’t even need to clarify what he was keeping away because Tony yells at him next, “No! Peter do not go near those things! This isn’t something any of us are equipped to deal with right now!” Tony says firmly. “Get to the top of a building, a suit is already on its way.”

“Ok..ok.” Peter groans heading to the top of a building. He could sense the panic in Tony’s voice, a panic that was only reserved for the worst of the worst, and he didn’t want to push it. He was getting overwhelmed by the infected anyways. How did so many people get bit so quickly? 

“Wait! What about Aunt May! She’s at the hospital right now.” Peter says looking up for the suit.

“I can’t get a hold of her kid, she’s not picking up,” Tony says sounding defeated. “I’m still sending a suit for her but...but the hospitals aren’t looking good Pete. That’s where are the people who got bit headed first.” He says quietly. 

“No! No! I have to go look for her! What if she’s still in there!” Peter says going to run to the edge of the building. But, before he could leap off he finds himself wrapped tightly in metal arms. 

“No no! Let me go!” Peter yells squirming around.

“I’ve got a suit scanning the building for her now,” Tony says simply. They both know it’s useless though. 

•••  
Peter arrives at the compound emotionally and physically exhausted. The suit plants him down on the landing pad outside of Tony’s private wing of the building. Just as he regains his footing he’s wrapped up in strong arms, the familiar scent of motor oil and sandalwood surround him. 

Tony.

He lets his body melt into the embrace. All the tension he didn’t even realize he was holding seeps out, and so do the tears. He lets the events of the day finally caught up with him. 

Zombie Apocalypse. 

He doesn’t even ask about May. He can’t. He knows if she was alive she would have been the first one to hug him. 

“Sssshhsss,” Tony says cupping the back of his head, holding it close against his chest. “I know, I know.” He says pressing his face into Peters’s curls. “Cmon let’s go inside. We’re safe here.” He says guiding Peter into the building.

•••  
The inside of the compound is bustling. 

“I’ve got everyone working to figure out what the hell is going on,” Tony says leading Peter to the couch. “Why don’t you go change out of that suit. You’re not going to be leaving here anytime soon.” Tony tells him. 

“What do you mean? We’re the Avengers, we’ve got to help the people.” Peter says standing up.

Tony shoots him a leveling glance. “Correction, I am the Avengers, you are a friendly neighborhood Spider-man, and this, this isn’t aliens, this isn’t bad guys, this is...this is us.”

“But the Avengers are supposed to fight the fights normal people can’t,” Peter says hoping to suade Tony’s perspective.

“Kid, this isn’t a fight. This is survival.”


	2. SpagettiOs

6 months later 

“Peter!?” Tony yells as gunshots ring out and infected groan all around. The small convenience store they raided was up in flames. What was supposed to be a simple trip to gather more supplies turned horribly wrong. Whoever was living here last must have set up booby traps for the infected and they had been unlucky enough to set them off. 

“I’m here! I’m here Mr. Stark.” Peter says running up beside him, shooting an infected in the head that was quickly approaching. “We gotta get out of here,” Peter says breathlessly as more infected surround them. 

“Yah yah I know,” Tony says, shooting another one in the head. “You manage to grab anything?” he asks looking down at Peter. They were running dangerously low on supplies. 

“Some stuff.” He says glancing back to the store that is clearly overwhelmed with infected. 

“Well, it looks like that’ll have to do.” Tony says, “On the count of three make a beeline to the car.” Tony says shooting another two infected in the head. 

“One” Peter knifes one that snuck up behind. 

“Two” Tony shoots one in the shoulder and then through the head. 

“Three” they run through the hoard dodging decaying body’s trying to reach out and infect them. 

Once in the car, both panting heavily, Tony looks over at Peter and says “just another day, huh?” 

Peter grins and shakes his head. 

“What’d you manage to grab?” Tony asks as they drive away. The car goes over some bumps and Pete pretends like he doesn’t know that they’re bodies. 

“Baby wipes,” Peter says, pulling the items out one by one, “2 bars of soap, and tampons?” He says wrinkling his nose as he holds up the box obviously reading it for the first time sense grabbing it.

“Geeze kid were you in the feminine hygiene isle or something?” Tony asks looking over at him. 

“Well sorry I wasn’t in the zombie apocalypse survival kit isle when we got surrounded.” Peter says clearly frustrated that he didn’t manage to grab anything of much use. 

“It’s ok kid we can make do.” Tony says sensing peters frustration. “Look in my bag, I think I might have grabbed some gems.” He says. 

“No way! SpaghettiOs!” Peter says holding up the can with a smile. 

Tony looks over at the kid, happy with the improvement in his mood. It really was the little things these days. 

“Alright,” Tony says as they pull down the forest road to the old hunting cabin they found. “We’re almost out of water, you wanna go for a water run while I start the fire and heat up your dinner spider-baby?” 

Peter smiles fondly at the old nickname. One he used to whine about, but now he cherished the memories it brings. “Sounds good.” He says as they get out of the car. 

Tony heads into the abandoned cabin while Peter heads down to the river with the buckets. He watches the boy disappear down the hill before starting the fire. It took a while for both of them to allow the other one out of their sight, but as their group got smaller and smaller they had to to insure survival. What once used to be a collection of “earth's mightiest heroes” all living in the protected walls of the compound slowly turned into just an old man and a boy on the road. 

Tony remembers those early days. When he had Pepper and Steve and the rest of the team. Before they knew how bad it was going to get. Before they slowly started running out of parts to replace the old one to keep the compound self sufficient. Before it got over run by infected. 

That’s the thing with a bunch of self sacrificing assholes. Everyone is willing to put their life on the line for one another, and that's what happened. In the chaos of the initial fight some were lost. Pepper didn’t see the one behind the tree, Sam tried to fight one off of Bucky. They were both bit. They both plead to be put down before they turned. Tony still got nauseous thinking about it. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t be the one. Natasha held him close as he heard the shots ring out. Steve was the one to do it. Thank god for his moral compass. At least they weren’t in this world anymore. That was one thing Tony was thankful for. At least they didn’t have to see the things he saw. 

As for the rest of the group, Tony wishes he knew what happened, or maybe he doesn’t. They got split up a while back. The kid quickly became Tony’s first and only priority. 

Make sure Peter was safe. Make sure he has food. Make sure he is warm. And most importantly make sure he doesn’t get bit. 

They got separated when they were heading through a town. Word of a safe zone out west was floating around. That’s where they were trying to head. But as they pass through more and more cities and towns, they pass more people. Sometimes the ones who were still alive were more dangerous than the ones that were dead. 

But he couldn’t afford to think about them. He had Peter to take care of now. He had to make this fire and heat up his SpaghettiOs. Something so domestic he could almost pretend that everything was normal. 

•••  
Peter walked through the woods, his feet sinking into the snow up to his shins with every step. The sun had just set through the trees casting a cool light all around. The water in the jugs he was carrying seemed to get heavier the closer he got to the cabin. All he wanted to do was curl up next to the fire and sleep...for a long time. Surviving seemed to get harder the longer this went on. Especially with the short winter days and long nights. 

Thankfully he could see the cabin up ahead, a steady stream of smoke coming from the chimney, meaning the fire was being stoked. He kicked his boots off at the door and entered.

“Hey, Pete,” Tony said softly by the hearth. He was sat cross-legged on the worn rug with a quilt wrapped around his shoulders. His beard and hair had grown out the past couple of months giving him that scruffy mountain man look. The layers of sweaters he had on hid the sharp edges of his bones. He looked soft. He looked like home. The meaning of that word changed so drastically for Peter over the months, but it always correlated directly with Tony. That would never change. 

“Hey Tony.” Peter said setting the water down and shuffling over to the man. 

“The SpaghettiOs are nice and warm now.” He says leaning over to stir the pot on the flames.

“Mmmhmm.” Peter says sitting down next to him. 

Tony opens up his quilt for Peter to slip under. “Geeze kid, you’re freezing,” Tony says, setting the ladle down to wrap his arm around Peter. “And you smell funny,” he says, kissing the top of Peters’s head. 

“You’re not much better, old man.” Peter says leaning into his touch. 

“Good thing you grabbed some of that soap. We could do a nice polar plunge in the river to wash up.” Tony says grabbing their bowls and filling Peters significantly more than his own. “Still not sure what we can use the tampons for but I’m sure we could think of something.” He adds blowing on his soup and taking a bite. 

Peter blushes a little. “I told you I just grabbed what was around.” He mumbles digging into his own dinner. Every time they eat he always tries to save some for tony. Knowing the man always gives himself small portions. But Peter does have enhanced metabolism which he has to remind himself about as he always ends up with an empty bowl. 

They eat in a comfortable silence. Enjoying the pleasure of warm food. Peter starts to nod off once his belly is semi full of his portion of dinner. He nuzzles up against Tony. 

“Don’t make me carry you over to the bed.” Tony says nudging Peter a little to keep him awake.

“It’s not that far.” Peter says sleepily. The one room cabin has a mattress up against the wall, close enough to the fire to feel the heat at night which is good. 

“Go get in, I’ll keep the fire going a little longer.” Tony says adding more logs to it to keep it going throughout the night. 

Peter does as he told and climbs into the queen sized bed. All sense of personal space is long gone. The awkwardness he once felt giving Tony so much as a hug has been replaced by the need to be by his side day and night. 

The man eventually comes over to the bed, bringing the extra blankets. He knows how cold Peter gets, especially at night. He climbs in and immediately the kid snuggled up next to him, trying to get all the body heat he can. 

“Tony?” He asks sleepily. 

“Yah Pete?” 

“Thanks for the SpaghettiOs” 

They both know that Peter means much more but the rest is left unspoken. 

Actions speak louder than words.


	3. Just a cold

Peter woke up to coughing, but the scary part was that it wasn’t his. “Tony?” He asked rolling over. 

The man was doubled over on the side of the bed coughing into his arm. He cleared his throat and looked down at Peter. “I’m fine kid, just an itch.” He said with a hoarse throat. His face was pale and there were dark circles under his eyes. Peter places a hand on Tony’s forehead and sucked in a breath. 

“You’re burning up.” He said. “Did you get bit?” He says going pale and falling back into the bed. One of the first symptoms of a bite is a fever. “Tony did you get bit?!” Peter yells starting to panic. “Did you get bit yesterday and not tell me!” He can feel tears start to pool in his eyes. Tony couldn’t be infected. If Tony was infected then he’d have to shoot him in the head and Peter couldn’t do that. He said he would when they made that pact to never let the other become one but now, he couldn’t. He couldn’t kill Tony. 

“Peter! Peter come back to me!” Tony says holding him by the shoulders. “Breath with me kid.” 

He must have zoned out. “Tony.” Peter chokes out. “Please, please, you can’t…you can’t…” 

“Peter!” Tony interrupts, “I wasn’t bit, or scratched. I’m not infected. I must just have come down with something. It’s just a cold.” 

“You swear?” Peter asks weakly. 

“I swear.” He says looking intensely into Peter’s eyes. 

He lets his head fall limply onto Tony’s chest. “I can’t lose you.” He says wrapping his arms around Tony. 

“I know kid. I’m not going anywhere.” Tony says into Peter’s curls. 

Once Peter’s breathing evens out he pulls away and wipes his face with the back of his hand. “I’ll make you some soup, or tea.” He realizes that they don’t have much to make either of those so he says, “Um or some hot water. I can make some hot water. Maybe put some leaves in it. But you should rest.” 

“Ok Pete, thank you.” Tonys says laying back down in the bed. “I probably just need some more rest then I’ll be fine.” 

Oh, how wrong that statement was. 

Tony only seemed to get worse. The “cold” that he claimed to have turned into the flu which turned into an almost comatose state that left the man bundled in bed all day long. To say Peter was worried was an understatement. 

“You are NOT going to die of a cold during a zombie apocalypse old man.” He said pressing a damp rag against Tony’s forehead. The man’s eyes were open but he wasn’t looking at Peter. This happened a lot lately. Tony would be lucid for a couple of hours a day, just enough to eat some soup and nod his head, but then he’d go back to sleeping and zoning out. He hadn’t talked in 3 days. Sometimes Peter would wake up to the man trembling in his sleep. His feverish body going into overdrive. The only thing he could do was lay next to him and wait it out. He knew it was getting bad. 

“It snowed again today. Real nice snow too. The type perfect for snowball fights.” Peter rambles filling the empty space. “When I went out to get water I didn’t expect it to be so powdery that I just sunk in and fell facefirst into it. You would have laughed. It was pretty funny.” he takes a deep breath. “Tony?” he studies the man’s unresponsive face. “I’m scared. I’m so scared. I know you don’t want me going to town alone but..” right before Tony got really bad he told Peter that going into town was too dangerous. And the possibility that he might not come back to leave Tony alone in the cabin wasting away had kept here. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

“I have to go into town. I know you don’t want me to but...but you’re getting worse Tony. I’ll take the car and a gun. The heard of infected has probably moved out by now and the drug store is on the edge of town. I can do it. I have to do it. You’d do it for me.” Peter says to the lifeless form of his mentor. He sets the rag aside and adds a few more logs to the fire to keep it going while he’s gone.

“I’ll be back soon, I promise,” Peter says leaning down to kiss Tony’s cheek. 

•••  
The drive to town was easy, not infected insight. He pulled up to the drug store and got out with his gun in hand. Once inside the thankfully deserted store, he grabbed everything he could think of that would help. Considering Tony’s deteriorating state anything was better than nothing. 

Some fever reducers, pain killers, vitamin C tablets, and lots of cold and flu medicines. If only May was here. She’d know what to do. 

A sound from outside alerted him. His super hearing picking it up easily in the quiet town. It didn’t sound like an infected it sounded like...voices. Immediately he tightened his grip on his gun. You couldn’t trust anyone these days. He snuck over to the door to peek through the glass. The voices were getting closer. It sounded like a male and female, they didn’t sound hostile which was good. Still, he was hesitant.

“This car looks like it hasn’t been here for a while.”

“You think someone is around?”

Wait. Peter knew those voices. 

“Steve? Natasha?” He asks, stepping out of the store.

“Peter?” They both say running up to him. “Peter oh my god! What? How? Where?” Steve sputters as Natasha pulls him into a tight hug. Steve brings him in next. 

“Are you ok?” Natasha asks straight to the point. 

“Yah yes I’m fine but Tony…”

Steve and Natasha both suck in a breath, faces going pale bracing themselves for the worst of the worst.

“He’s alive!” Peter adds quickly. “He’s alive but really really sick. We’ve been staying in this old cabin outside of town for a while but he got sick and hasn’t gotten better so I came and tried to find some medicine for him.” 

“You’re out here alone?” Steve asks worriedly.

“Well...yah Tony couldn’t really come. He kinda just sleeps all day.” Peter says sadly. “I have to get back to him. I left him alone.”

“It’s just you two? You haven’t found any of the others?” Natasha asks. 

“Just us.” 

“Ok, what’d you grab for him.” She asks right back to business. The pain of missing the rest of their group quickly wiped off her face.

He shows her the inside of his bag and she shakes her head. “We should see if they have anything stronger. See if they have any prescription meds behind the counter.” She says going back into the store. They all follow.

“I’m so glad I found you two, or you found me, whatever I’m just so glad we’re all together again,” Peter rambles, “I was so scared...I was so scared when Tony got sick I didn’t know, I mean I still don’t know if he’s going to get better, and our food has been running so low and…” 

“Hey Peter shhh,” Steve says grabbing him by the shoulders, “We’re here now.” He brushes a tear off of Peter’s cheek. 

“And we’re not letting Tony die,” Natasha says holding an armful of meds. “C'mon let’s go. I’ve got the good stuff.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh more characters! More characters to whump with Peter! Thanks for reading!


	4. Together again

They get back to the cabin and the only change is the embers of the fire. 

“Hey Tony, look who I found,” Peter says softly, kneeling down by the man. 

Steve looks at his friend with his sunken in cheeks and pale complexion. The once lively snarky man who can’t even open his eyes right now. His breathing was short and shallow. “Tasha,” he croaks out, not looking away from Tony.

“I know,” she says shortly, neither of them wanting to directly address the severity of the situation. 

“It’s bad isn’t it,” Peter says looking between the adults. 

Natasha fills up a syringe with some medicine and goes to inject it into Tony’s shoulder. “This should help.” She says taking a step back. “It’s not much but it should do. We’ll give it a couple of hours and then see if there’s any progress.” 

Peter silently sniffles and wipes at his eyes. Natasha goes to stoke the fire while Steve takes notice of the boy and sits down next to him. 

“He’ll pull through, he always does,” Steve says, bumping shoulders with Peter. “And, we’re here now, we can help take care of you two.” 

Peter nods silently. 

“You want to go out hunting with me? Look for some deer and rabbits? Tasha makes a mean stew.” Steve says, trying to distract Peter.

“It’s true my stew is the best.” Natasha states matter of factly. “I can watch over him little spider. Do not worry.” She says walking up behind him and petting his matted hair. 

“I kinda wanna stay with him if that's all right. I’m a little tired.” Peter says exhaustedly. 

“Of course Pete.” Steve says. “I’ll be back before sundown.” he grabs a rifle and swings it over his back leaving the house. 

Peter lets out a yawn and a small shiver.

“Why don’t you get some rest? I’ll watch over Tony and give him some more medicine and then when you wake we’ll have some warm stew.” She hums scratching his head soothingly. And how could he resist something as tempting as that. A safe sleep with someone watching out for him and the promise of warm food. Peter lets out a small hum before crawling into the bed with Tony and falling asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow. 

He wakes up who knows how much later, all sense of time has disappeared in this new world. The sun has set though and the only source of light is coming from the fire. There’s a smell drifting through the house, like cooking meat. He feels rough hands carding through his hair. Maybe it was Steve. He was supposed to be back by sundown anyways. 

Peter lets out a yawn and rubs his sleepy eyes. 

“Hey bub.” A weak voice says from next to him. 

“Tony?” Peter says sitting up and sure enough Tony was weakly propped up against the pillow looking still like death but much much better. 

“The medicines already kicking in.” Natasha smiles from the fire where she’s stirring the soup.  
Steve’s sat on the ground next to her widdling a stick. “He woke up a while ago but we thought we’d let you sleep.” He smiles at the two. 

“Tony” Peter whimpers out throwing himself against the man. Finally after all those days, he feels Tony’s arms wrap around him. He burries his face in the sweater on the mans chest. “I thought…I didn’t know…” he blubbers out. 

“Ssshhh ssshhh bambino. I’m here. I’m still here.” Tony shushes him pressing kisses to his hair. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.” He says. Peter relaxes against his chest. 

They eat their dinner all huddled around Tony. Steve and Natasha telling him what they’ve seen out there, how they’ve been surviving, what they had to do. Tony fills them in on him and Peters adventures. How they ended up in this cabin. Peter tunes out most of the conversation sinking more into Tony’s warm side. The man keeps an arm around Peter the whole time rubbing it soothingly up and down his back. 

Steve and Natasha get some extra blankets and set up a little bed right next to theirs. Natasha sticks Tony one more time with the needle, whatever medicine was in there was already doing wonders. His color was coming back and his voice was more steady. They all said there goodnight before laying down side by side listening to the warms crackle of the fire. Tony pulls Peter close to his side and kisses his forehead. 

“Thanks for taking care of me Pete” he say softly. 

“You would have done the same for me” Peter says wrapping his arms around Tony and laying his head on his chest. 

“You’re right.” Tony hums softly beganing to drift off again. 

•••  
Peter woke up to the sounds of moans in the distance. 

“Walkers” he said sitting up. 

He shook tony awake and whispered over to Steve and Natasha. “I can hear a heard coming. It sounds big.” He said in a hushed whisper. “We need to leave.”

Everyone tenses at those words. 

“I’ll grab the guns, Tasha grab the rations, Peter grab the blankets.” Steve ordered. 

Everyone rustled around the cabin grabbing everything they could and running out to the car. Steve slid into the drivers seat, Natasha into the passenger and Peter and Tony in the back. Peter looked out the back window and saw the trees rustling. 

“Go Steve go!” He said. 

So Steve sped off leaving their little cabin in the distance. Peter watched it longingly dissapear in the dark. The sun was rising on the horizon. Orange and pink hues threatening to light up the sky at any moment. 

“We’ll find another place kid. Don’t worry.” Tony told him. 

Peter still worried.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was kinda a filler chapter and I’m pretty sure it was so boring in sry but I tried to include some irondad fluff so hopefully that made up for it


End file.
